Five of the best Art deco cinemas

The art deco cinemas of the 1920s and 30s are some of the most optimistic statements ever made in stone. Which is why their ruin is one of architecture's saddest stories.

They were built at a time of hope, following the horrors of the first world war. After decades as a technical novelty, film had just matured into mass entertainment. New auditoriums were needed to meet demand; the ambitious, intoxicatingly modern deco style was at its height; money was available …

And the era's architects did not disappoint. Unencumbered by the irritant of windows, they were able to create majestic viewing halls in virtually any shape that could be imagined and engineered. Glamour, spectacle, scale, exoticism: these things were not just permitted, they were fervently desired. And the captivated public turned up in their millions.

Yet, like the prosperity and peace of the period itself, the cinemas' heyday was shortlived. Though they survived the second world war, they could not combat television. Some awkwardly installed more screens; some reverted to ancestral type by becoming theatres; some, in their later years, lured back many of their earliest customers with bingo; and others, yes, have struggled on. But many more have simply been demolished to make way for drab alternatives. A tragedy, as one often realises in the final reel, that was destined from the start.

1. Mecca Kingstanding, Birmingham

As large and glorious a deco cinema as you will ever see – though it's now a bingo hall. Its magnificent three fins and sweeping lines retain their allure.

2. Odeon Leicester Square, London

The jewel of cinema magnate Oscar Deutsch's Odeon empire, and still the largest single-screen cinema in Britain. But as you admire its black granite facade and doomy tower, consider that it replaced the Alhambra, a music hall of once far greater splendour.

3. The Abbey, Wavertree, Liverpool

A truly awe-inspiring local cinema, with strip-lit frontage and curved brick battlements. Today it has kept its glorious shape, but little of its dignity, by being repurposed as a supermarket.

4. Odeon Bury, Greater Manchester

In 1936 this was a white-tiled vision from an Odeon chain at the very peak of glamour. Today it has become a nightclub.

5. Ascot Cinema, Glasgow

Opened late, in 1939, this is a magnificent example of both a large art deco cinema, and how to convert one into something useful: in this case, a block of flats. The curved towers and vertical red stripes always remind its residents where they are.